Chapter 6
Booth pulled the Charger into a restaurant. Brennan turned toward him and raised her right eyebrow.
"New information?" She asked skeptically.
"Well I figured we could use a little break. Besides I'm hungry." He smiled. He pulled into a parking space and shut the car off.
"Booth, there is work to be done. We have to question the Miccosukee tribesmen and I would like to visit the crime scene." Brennan was starting to get angry.
"Bones, listen. We have eaten since we had those bags of peanuts on the plane. I'm hungry and my body doesn't function so well without food. It's already four o'clock. I talked to Detective Rollins. He says that the Miccosukee are very leery of outsiders and he would try to see what he could do about coming down to the police station but it's a long shot. We really don't have any solid leads as to who would have wanted our victim dead anyway." Booth told her.
"All right, let's have dinner. What is this place anyway?" She threw him another questioning look.
"It's a little place the local cops like to go to. Apparently it has some really good seafood." Booth gave her one of his charm smiles. From the outside the place looked like a hole in the wall, mom and pop kind of diner. Thoughts of a long night with indigestion popped into Brennan's head. Grimacing, she followed Booth inside.
Inside, the place actually looked halfway decent despite the whole boat theme. Blue and white paint graced the walls in the forms of waves and there were oars and other boat parts nailed all around. It was actually kind of busy for four o'clock in the afternoon.
An older lady walked up to them. Her gray hair was up in a bun and she wore a button down white shirt and black slacks.
"Welcome to Ma's Shrimp Boat. Best seafood platter in all of Miami. Take any seats you like." She smiled and Booth and Brennan smiled back. Quickly the two picked a booth in the corner of the room. It was secluded enough for them to talk about the case.
One of the waitresses came over and handed them menus. Booth ordered drinks for the both of them and they looked over their choices. Soon the waitress was back and she set down their drinks, chocolate milk for Booth and iced tea for Brennan. His partner had snickered at his drink choice considering the fact that he was a big, tough FBI Agent ordering chocolate milk like his son Parker would have.
The waitress asked what they wanted to eat and Booth chose the famous seafood platter while Brennan chose the less famous, shrimp linguini. While they waited for their food, the two turned their attention back to the case.
"Do you think that maybe it was a ritual killing?" Booth asked.
"No, I've seen and read about ritual cases. If the Miccosukee had performed some sort of ritual there would have been symbols or something carved into the body or even something missing from the body that stood for something significant. Besides wouldn't it be strange for their own tribesmen to bring attention to it?" Brennan wondered.
"Well Detective Rollins said that some of the tribe still practices the older religion and some don't so maybe one hand wouldn't know what the other was doing." Booth suggested. Brennan nodded thoughtfully and sipped some of her iced tea.
About ten minutes later, the waitress returned and placed their food in front of them. Taking their drinks, she promised to be back with refills. Both sat their and tucked into their food and silence fell over the table. Soon their drinks were brought back, refilled, and the partners continued to eat in silence.
WWWWWWWWWWWWWW
A man struggled against his bonds as he was lying in the bottom of a swamp boat. The boat raced through a bayou in Louisiana near the Gulf of Mexico. Another man stood at the boat's tiller and navigated through the clumps of Cyprus trees. Finally, the man steering the boat cut out the engine. He stood up and smiled as three alligators slithered into the water from their resting place atop some patches of dry land.
"You're going to pay for what you did." The man reached down and removed the gag. The tied up man tried to scream but the other man slammed his fist into his face. He then turned and grabbed a pair of pliers and the next thing the other man would remember was the feeling of blood in his mouth and the alligators coming for him.
To Be Continued…